Monday, 4 February 2013

Guidelines When You Need To Purchase Mailing Lists

By Casandra Newton


Mailing is one method that is widely being adopted by marketers all over the world to contact their potential clients. The good thing with this method of marketing is that it knows no geographical boundary. The mails can be sent to subscribers across the borders. However, without a good mailing list, all your efforts will go unrewarded. Before going out to purchase mailing lists, the following guidelines may help you end up with a good list that will earn you more responses.

Your first consideration should be the source of the details in the list. This will hugely determine the success of any list. Most brokers usually obtain the details that they include in the list from two major sources. The first one is those names that are found in public places. Such a list is likely to be less effective since it is compiled without informing the potential clients. Anybody can always compile such a list and therefore it is not very costly. Another source is the opt ins. This is where potential clients voluntarily sign to be briefed about new products and services in the market.

You must also consider how you intend to use your list. There are marketers who prefer contacting potential clients by sending them emails, others also send letters and so forth. You should thus know the method you want to use and be sure that your list contains information relevant to that method. This will make contacting those clients whose names appear in the list to be easy. A list that only have names and nothing else will not be useful and must not be bought.

Price is another crucial factor. This usually varies from a few dollars to hundreds per name. Of course scrambled list will be a little bit cheaper because of the fact that it contains details that are publicly available. On the other side of the spectrum, opt in list will be a little bit costlier but likely to be more productive.

A good quality mailing list should also contain only the current details concerning subscribers. Some people change their addresses on a regular basis. For your list to remain relevant in such a situation, you should also update it more regularly. This needs to be done not less than once in every six months.

A list is only useful when you use it immediately after its purchase. As such, it is imperative to factor in when you intend to use your list. If you are not yet ready to use it, you should always avoid buying it as it may over stay and become stale.

Who sells you the list is also of great importance. You should to some research about brokers and ensure that you settle on one who is reputable. This will ensure that you buy the current list. Otherwise, you may end up buying a list that is already expired and this will only cost your business.

The above are just a few tips that a marketer should always consider before going out to purchase mailing lists. Once you have acquired the list, you also need to cleanse regularly. This will ensure that it remains effective for a very long duration of time.




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